Building a Comprehensive Safety Plan, Part IV

In Part 4 of this series, I am finally getting to the team no one thinks of when

it comes to building a comprehensive safety plan: the safety team (insert

tongue in cheek here — and yes, this is why they pay me the big bucks!)

I am also going to address the importance of a mentorship program that

works in conjunction with the safety team.

The First Year

While not all carriers hire fresh Class-A CDL graduates, many carriers DO hire

drivers with less than one year of experience. Many companies have adjusted

down their experience requirement in the past decade — but how much

have their safety programs changed in response to the needs of less-

experienced drivers and heightened regulations?

Studies show that, regardless of age, drivers with less than one year of driving

experience pose the greatest safety risk in terms of violations and crashes.

Providing these inexperienced drivers with mentorship from experienced

drivers during the first year — on top of additional coaching or training from

your safety team — is highly recommended.

So, what does that look like?

My favorite answer to give (and the one all lawyers are trained to provide) is,

“It depends.”

It depends on your company’s safety challenges, company culture and the

resources you have available in manpower, technology and training

development skills. Any of this can be outsourced, but maintaining your

company values and unique policies in these programs will still take some

manpower from your safety team in guiding the external team and reviewing

their work.

Mentorship Programs That Actually Work

For a mentorship program to work, your mentors must be engaged and

shining examples of your company’s culture. Just as with your road trainers,

it’s vital to regularly connect with your mentors and give them a voice in

program development and a voice in changes they would like to see in the

company.

You certainly want mentors who are passionate about developing others, but

for this to be viewed as a professional part of their job, you should

provide some compensation for their time and efforts — and specify

goals to which you can hold them accountable to receive their

compensation.

Mentors with a minimum of one year of experience driving and a fantastic

safety record are an obvious must, but they should also have a positive view of

your safety team. Mentors further establish your company’s values and

when/how the mentees should engage with office employees.

The same can be said for the safety technology on the trucks. Mentees are

likely to adopt a similar perspective to their mentors regarding the tech

your safety team has carefully chosen. Ideally, your mentors share the same

convictions your safety team has. After all, they are acting as your safety team

in the field!

When pairing mentors with mentees, carefully consider each person’s

background, personality, and hobbies. Those with similar interests will be

most likely to result in a productive and happy match.

Depending on the nature of how your freight moves, you may want to

develop a mentorship “hotline” that gives newer drivers an opportunity to

reach another mentor if their assigned mentor is unavailable. Another option

would be to have a 24/7 on-call safety member who can either answer the

question or look up another mentor who may be available.

Effective Safety Teams

For your safety team to be most effective in your fleet, developing

relationships and trust is key.

Sometimes having the right title and/or experience can garner enough

respect to get someone to truly listen to you and help change their life, but

this is rare. Most often, the people we trust have our individual best interests at

heart and are the ones who change our lives. For example, even with my

impressive J.D. degree and decades in trucking (placing tongue firmly in

cheek here while pausing for dramatic effect), I still expect those of you who

have met me are far more likely to consider my advice in these articles.

For your drivers to believe you genuinely care about them, they need to feel

they know you and that you understand and appreciate the challenges of

their job.

The first year, when less-experienced drivers are your highest risk, is the most

impactful time for you to be calling, listening to what they’re facing and

coaching them weekly (or monthly, depending on the size of your fleet).

Important advice: Listen first, coach second. This is coming from someone

who loves to talk, but I also love to learn — and learning comes from listening.

This is likely to positively affect your retention as well.

Another option is to assign regular training goals using a system that lets you

monitor completion rates. Incompletion must have consequences!

Why is this important? First, it shows you believe your program is important

and makes a difference. If you don’t, why should the drivers believe in it?

Second, if a driver gets into an accident and you must turn over records

showing that the driver has not completed any assigned safety training for

months, it paints a poor picture of both the driver’s and the company’s

commitment to safety.

For the most effective training, you’ll need to measure the causes of

accidents and violations at your company. I encourage you to share in your

training some metrics to show how serious these mistakes are for the

company and other drivers.

How much are these accidents/violations costing the company? How much

downtime does a driver experience following this type of accident? How are

these safety issues impacting the company’s and drivers’ CSA scores? What

does it mean for the company and drivers if you hit intervention levels in that

category? If you can reduce it by X%, what do you estimate the savings will

be?

These topics are really great for your entire fleet.

Also, if you love a good debate like me — and can take the time to reinforce

you’re all on the same team — share the experience level of the drivers having

these accidents.

Most often, experienced drivers are certain it’s always the new

“whippersnappers” having all the accidents. While we do see drivers in their

first year have the most accidents, they are far from the only ones having

accidents. In fact, share the most common accident in each band of

experience.

Everyone can be part of reducing accidents, and no one is immune from

having one. If you can share metrics that apply to each driver and

convince them that each individual action matters, you are more likely to get

their attention. It can also be a good tactic to recruit mentors.

Speaking of metrics …

Part 5 in this series is focused entirely on building powerful assessments and

metrics to bolster your safety program and direct ongoing changes for the

better. This applies at every step in your program. You cannot build a safety

program that works if you are not unbiased in measuring its impact and

continuing to adjust as the demographics, technology and needs in your fleet

evolve.

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